College Sailing: Fall Season Update

Chris Klevan reports on the upcoming college sailing season.

After a summer of rest, coaching gigs and internships, sailors return to their respective schools and look to the water as the 2017 Intercollegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) Fall Season is upon us. With regattas starting in early September and ending in mid-November, spanning from coast to coast, the ICSA will sanction hundreds of regattas just this fall alone.

The fall nationals are always a highlight of the season, with the Men’s and Women’s Singlehanded Nationals to take place November 4-5 in St. Petersburg, Florida, followed by the Match Racing National Championship on November 10-12 at the College of Charleston, in South Carolina, host of last spring’s championships.

Last fall, Georgetown University won the 2016 Match Race National Championship held in San Diego, California. Also known as the Cornelius Shields Jr. Trophy, the match racing championship was a hard fought one as the best of three series went to three races against Mid-Atlantic rival, Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Returning most of last year’s championship team (AJ Reiter graduated spring 2017), Georgetown will look to repeat as champions this fall.

Boston College teammates Scott Rasmussen (’20) and Erika Reineke (’17) stood as the victors of both the Men’s and the Women’s 2016 Singlehanded National Championships. While Scott will seek to repeat, Erika’s graduation, and ensuing honors as the Quantum Women’s Sailor of the year, open the door for the women’s 2017 title.

These three national championships help set the tone for the season, coupled with a women’s and coed fleet racing season which culminates in the Coed and Women’s Atlantic Coast Championships, held at SUNY Maritime College in New York and Connecticut College in Connecticut College, respectively.

MIT won the 2016 Coed Atlantic Coast Championship at home last fall and The United States Coast Guard Academy won the 2016 Women’s Atlantic Coast Championship held at College of Charleston.

The Beavers of MIT should return both starters from last fall’s championship effort and will be looking strong for the fall 2017 campaign, though with Coast Guard Bears losing to graduation 2016 Quantum Women’s Sailor of the Year Nikole Barnes, all eyes will be on who will step forward as this year’s power in women’s sailing.

Background: The Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) is the governing authority for sailing competition at colleges and universities throughout the United States and in some parts of Canada. There are seven Conferences that schedule and administer regattas within their established geographic regions, with ICSA hosting two national championships in the fall (singlehanded, match racing) and three national championships in the spring (team, women’s, coed). collegesailing.org